


Slow

by MakeSadieStop



Series: Nothing Hurts [5]
Category: Naruto
Genre: First Time, Fluff, I'm super insecure about how this turned out um, M/M, Names, Names are a really big deal here okayokay, Probably more than this tbh, Vivid Sensual Description
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-19 00:53:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11302371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MakeSadieStop/pseuds/MakeSadieStop
Summary: Gaara was sweet enough to kiss Naruto's seal, so Naruto wants to return the favor. Only Gaara doesn't have a seal. As already witnessed, Naruto takes that as a challenge.Or: in which Uzumaki Naruto comprehensively and oh-so-sweetly reduces the virginal Fifth Kazekage to his composite molecules.





	Slow

Gaara doesn’t know when all the words he’s ever had just _escaped_.

He remembers enough to know what it means to forget, he supposes. That’s the kind of thinking that gives him a headache, though, and he can’t waste the beautiful _everything_ of all the other parts of him that are _certainly not_ aching with something like that.

He remembers his own name, too. On every other gasping, shuddering breath, it seems, he hears it. Naruto just won’t let him forget it.

Naruto _._ He remembers that one, too, above everything.

Uzumaki _Naruto_ . . .

The name that pulses through him, over and over, not quite all he remembers but definitely all that matters, forcing his jackhammering heart to keep time. All he can think. Why can’t he _say_ it?

“Hey—Gaara. _Hey_.”

Hey. That’s his name. Wait—wait, no, it’s the other one. Right.

“You alright? Wheezing again.”

He doesn’t recall wheezing before. He doesn’t recall that there was a before, only him and this and _him_. But Naruto has stopped, and Naruto is frowning, and if either one of those terrible things goes on for much longer Gaara will have to lie down on this bed and just die because _please no don’t you ever stop_ and _I fell in love with your smile_.

Gaara tries not to wheeze. He nods.

When he nods, Gaara is very careful. As much as he is still master of his own body, he keeps from nodding too hard—he might break someone’s nose that way, Naruto has leaned down so close. And instead of letting his head simply rest once the message is across, he lifts his chin, arches his neck. Exposed.

Naruto knows what to do, Gaara’s sure. He just needs a reminder.

“Fiiii- _nnnn_ —” It’s not necessary for Gaara to finish the word, which is good, because he’s not sure he remembers how. He just knows that the last time Naruto sent him to heaven like this, it started when his breath came out all wrong on this one syllable.

Only it can’t be wrong, not in the end, because Naruto’s lips and Naruto’s _teeth_ and Gaara is already seeing stars. He goes too fast at first, overwhelmingly, dizzyingly, diving into the crook of Gaara’s neck and just _attacking_ until it’s almost too much.

Too much of a good thing? Is that the phrase?

But before the little desperate keens can build all the way up into a plea for him to stop—Gaara hates the idea, hates that he can’t take it, he never wants to have to make him stop—Naruto slows down. He’s taking his time now, trailing, _hovering_. By the time he gets to that hollow just under Gaara’s throat, every touch is light enough for the ghost of it to linger and crackle and _burn_ and if Gaara still had the faculties to grasp metaphors he would be mixing them _so_ terribly because no single one can catch just how good it _feels_.

As it is, he persists in his noble struggle to manage more than a syllable of that beautiful, holy name.

“Nn—Na- _ahhhh_ —”

“It’s okay. S’alright. I’ll be gentle, see?”

Naruto doesn’t need to say his promise out loud like this—into the corner of his jawline, under his ear, where that blasted _pipe_ just won’t quit it. He’s already murmured it a thousand times, in the fingertips tracing over Gaara’s hips to keep them steady, in the hand cradling his head so it won’t hit the headboard every time he jolts.

Uzumaki Naruto. _Gentle_.

Gaara doesn’t stop trying. He almost does it when the feeling _supernovas_ through him, forcing out half of a name and more than half of a tear.

“ _Naru_ -!”

“I know, I know, it’s okay, I’m here—don’t cry, please, it just takes a second—”

Where did Naruto get the idea that it was ever anything less than okay? He’d call them tears of joy, but joy doesn’t cover this. More than that, he knows _that’s_ not where joy comes from.

“It’s good? It’s good, right, Gaara?”

That’s his name. At least he remembers to nod whenever he recognizes his name. And now it looks like Naruto remembers exactly what to do whenever he nods. He’s disturbed the pipe from two points now—under the ear, over the trachea.

Not that Gaara needs to breathe like this. Naruto can breathe for him. Naruto is breath.

Naruto is talking. Gaara doesn’t need to think like this.

“All good?”

Soft. Intimate. _Right there_. Sends a shudder through him that makes him forget he’s supposed to nod.

But Naruto’s smarter than everyone thinks. His eyes widen so that Gaara can have the fleeting, wondering thought of how beautiful the color blue can be.

“Okay. I-I’m glad it’s so . . . well.”

Are Naruto’s words starting to escape, too? That strange satisfaction again.

“I know it might be a little much, right now, and there’s no pressure, I mean figuratively, but d’you think you could try, ya know—”

What does he want? Whatever he wants, Gaara wants, too, more than anything.

“You just sound so _pretty_ like this, already, so could you maybe . . . say my name?”

 ** _Oh_**.

If only the question is enough to make Naruto blush so hard, with that bashful half-smile while he waits, the one that makes his eyes nearly close, where he’d usually scratch the back of his neck but of course his hands are too busy now, then—then Gaara will redouble his efforts.

How military a thought, for love. He gulps, nods, forces out a puff of breath that might resemble _okay_.

“Cool.” Naruto still has the words, but they’re faltering.

A moment’s recovery, then Naruto is steadying and cradling him again because he _needs_ it.

It’s a struggle, every attempt reduced to a gasp or a groan. But he almost has it, and Naruto can tell.

“It’s okay. You can do it.”

The encouragement could have been left unspoken, too. Naruto leaves his hip alone for a moment to splay his fingertips out over Gaara’s heart, resting, reassuring. He presses a kiss to Gaara’s pulse, too, and somehow, it doesn’t burst open.

“Just try. My name. My whole name.”

“Uzumaki _Naru_ -!!”

He almost does it. In the instant before everything breaks: first his voice, then his control.

Yet, in all his years of existence, Gaara has never felt so _whole_.

***

Gaara’s brain has now regained function, but he’s still not so sure about his legs.

He’s definitely sure about Naruto’s mouth, though.

“You’re okay? I know you nodded, you nodded _a_ _lot_ , but, I mean, that could’ve been—I don’t know, an involuntary spasm? And you kinda blacked out for a second there, I got up and drank some water and everything before you started moving, and—is something broken? Gaara, say something, _please_ tell me I didn’t—”

“Uzumaki Naruto.”

Not even a rasp. More of a wisp. But it does the job. And it shuts Naruto up. (No one even had to say ‘make me.’)

Gaara opens his eyes with a squint, rolls over with a groan, and there he is. Eyes wide, lips parted, _visibly_ holding his breath.

“Promised to try. Sorry . . . took so long . . .”

He barely finishes mumbling before Naruto grabs him by the face, pulling him closer, nose-to-nose.

“You have nothing to be sorry for!”

How can such a fierce whisper make Gaara feel so _loved_?

“You were perfect. Beautiful. Really, if anyone should apologize, it’s _me_ , I mean, one time you were crying—”

“ _Happy tears_.”

“Okay, sure, but you couldn’t even _breathe_ and I was trying to make you _talk_ , just ‘cause I thought it would sound nice, what kind of _sick_ —”

“Did it sound nice?”

Naruto starts, but not enough to jump back. Not even a shock like that will make him let go.

“Well, yeah, but—”

“Did _you_ cry happy tears?”

Naruto is blushing again, and now Gaara can’t decide which one is truly the most beautiful color.

“A little bit . . . hearing you, looking at you, just—I mean, _Gaara_ , you—”

“Then you have nothing to be sorry for.”

The matter is settled. Gaara basks in warmth, traveling down with Naruto’s hands until settling on his waist.

“I still feel a little . . . I mean, I said I was going to kiss you everywhere, not that I would—”

“Just how sheltered do you think I am?”

“I feel like you’ll hit me if I tell the truth.”

“In that case, you don’t have to. But it doesn’t matter. I’d need to borrow both your hands to count all the times you asked permission.”

“I guess, but—look, Gaara, I just want you to know that I didn’t go into this plotting to take your—”

“I gave it to you. It’s yours. As far as I’m concerned, it’s _been_ yours. For years.”

“Oh.”

Naruto stares down the sheets for so long, the pipe acts up all over again when he finally returns to Gaara’s eyes.

“How long?”

“It only hit me as I came back. As you pulled me. But . . . longer.”

It seems that Naruto won’t do anything, until he does, and Gaara is _enveloped_.

“I’m so late. I’m sorry.”

“We’ve been over this. Nothing to be sorry for.”

It’s muffled against this beautiful collarbone, but it seems that he hears it anyway, because Gaara can _feel_ Naruto’s throat _convulsing._

“Happy tears?”

The kiss tastes of salt. Gaara has his answer.

***

They’re all cried out now, but as Gaara glances up, about to ask if they should get up, he can see that Naruto has one last thing to say.

“I know you said you gave it to me—and that was really sweet, otherwise I wouldn’t be using your sheets as tissues—by the way, apologize to Kankuro for me—but _anyway_ , we’re forgetting something.”

Gaara is sure it must be his fault.

“I just took your flower, so isn’t it my duty . . .?”

Gaara hasn’t laughed so hard in ten years.

Naruto doesn’t seem to think it’s funny. Gaara doesn’t have to look up to know what his expression must be in this moment, that huffing, indignant scowl.

“We’re talking your reputation here!”

“I didn’t know I’d gone to bed with such a traditionalist!”

“‘Gone to bed’? Who’s the geezer now?”

Laughing together forges even stronger bonds than crying together. But at least when they cried, his ribs didn’t ache so much by the end.

“To be honest, Naruto, I didn’t know that I _had_ a flower.”

“Well, maybe not,” Naruto admits.

That must be the end of it. Until it’s not.

“But I still want to marry you.”

Gaara realizes with certainty that he has yet another pipe.

Straight to the heart.

“This makes it my turn to say your whole name, right? Well—Gaara of the Desert—”

“No.”

That stands in shocked silence for a long time before it strikes Gaara that he should clarify.

“Not of the desert.”

It would be rude to point out the rush in which Naruto exhales.

“Then what?”

“‘Of’ is a home, an origin. My home is the desert, true. But it also means belonging.”

“Then . . .?”

Gaara could answer with a simple touch, or a kiss. But he wants to see just how much he can do to the pipe at his fingertips.

It’s only fair.

“Then that makes me Gaara of Naruto. At your service.”

If the gasp that tightens Naruto’s throat—or the beat that skips in his pulse—if these are colors, then they are too beautiful for words.

**Author's Note:**

> SWEET BABY JESUS AND I THOUGHT THE LAST ONE WAS THE HEIGHT OF THE PURE/DIRTY PARADOX.  
> After rereading this one before posting, I seriously considered making it E, but I decided to keep it M because there's no graphic language and no visual description. Still, you don't have to be Shikamaru to see what's going on. Never written anything resembling a sex scene before, so please, constructive criticism. I tried to make it sexy and pretty at the same time, I don't know.  
> So, moving on to my author commentary! I'm really proud of this title because it has so many meanings, fluffy and angsty, literal and metaphorical, that can apply at so many points throughout the narrative. But I'm not giving any hints this time, because a) do you even care? and b) y'all are smart and c) I love you guys. (Okay, maybe one hint: it's at least part foreshadowing.)  
> Second! The second-to-last line was based directly off of Gaara introducing himself in Viz Media's Shonen Jump as "Gaara of the Desert, at your service" (possibly with different punctuation). I've since watched the anime, both dub and sub, and found as many interpretations of that line as there are translators, but I like that one best because it just feels the most in-character. Plus, it works best for this story because I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND.  
> When Gaara and Naruto talk about "how long," in Gaara's reply, he's referring to the Kazekage Rescue Mission storyline--when Granny Chiyo revives Gaara, and the first person that Gaara sees is Naruto, reaching a hand out to help him up. That moment is--just so precious for me uggghhh it's beautiful and I had to bring it in, however indirectly and sparingly.  
> I really liked exploring how protective and concerned Naruto is, romantically speaking. And even though the stuff about "taking Gaara's flower" was mostly there for comic relief/segue into "Gaara of Naruto" fluff, I feel like he would be genuinely afraid of pushing Gaara into growing up too fast in that sense.  
> Oh, that brings me to my last item: Naruto's implied marriage proposal and Gaara's implied acceptance! I am 99% certain that marriage equality is /still/ not a thing in Japan, which would make this difficult (not to mention sad, infuriating, et cetera). However, Naruto is supposed to be set in the "Ninja World," and I don't recall a single moment in which LGBT rights are discussed in the canon. Not really any LGBT discussion at all, except for the NaruSasu elements and a few comments on Orochimaru . . . hmm . . . but anyway, in my interpretation for this fic at least, let's say that everything's legal and so Naruto is promising a real possibility. Because there's already enough angst here without a homophobic culture on top of it all. Cool? Cool.


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